The Mermaid and Me
by itsajoshyboy
Summary: After a near drowning at sea, Merudy awakens to find herself in a hidden cave. As she tries to find a way to return to her crew, she finds herself enchanted by, and growing closer to, the mermaid who rescued her. Their love may blossom, but will it be enough to keep them together? Pirate!Merudy/Mermaid!Juvia. MerUvia.
1. 01: Into the Depths

**A/N: This is a little idea that I've had sitting around for a couple of weeks that I've finally got around to starting. It's not going to be a long story, I imagine about 10 chapters.**

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Darkness crept into Merudy's vision, as she descended deep into the ocean depths. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to hold her breath for, but she knew it wouldn't be long enough. She realized that resistance was futile, but she still desperately fought back, she had to reach the surface. She had to keep trying.

She gave one last push against her aquatic prison, but unfortunately it was no use. Her strength had been completely sapped from her body, and her will to go on faded as well. She hoped Ultear and the others would forgive her, one day, for giving up.

Visionless, Merudy felt herself be pulled deeper into the ocean, before gentle hands cradled her face. _Did one of those idiots dive in after me?!_ she angrily thought, which soon left her body when soft lips met her own. Her consciousness was lost before she could open her eyes to behold the face of her saviour.

She awakened after a while, violently coughing, spread out on a hard, rocky surface. She pushed herself up slightly, despite the pain she felt in her chest, and scanned her location. Glowing moss that was everywhere granted her enough vision to make out that she was currently in a smallish cave, next to what appeared to be a pool of water. _Was that how I got here?_

Not able to fight against the pain she felt any longer, she collapsed, wincing as her body connected with the surface below. Luckily, she managed to avoid banging her head; Merudy was sure that her body wouldn't be able to stand much more trauma.

She realized she was alone, but she shouldn't be. She was sure that somehow had saved her from the ocean currents, could barely remember the feel of someones hands on her skin. Where had her saviour vanished to? Had she really been rescued by someone, or was it just a drowning induced vision? Was she actually dead right now? Was this the afterlife? If so, it sucked.

Unfortunately for her, Merudy realized she was too weak to use her magic effectively. She tried to reach out with her Sensory Link, to connect with the others, but her range was limited by her lack of strength. It was pointless to try it again.

The coldness of the cave, started to seep its way deep into her bones, and she groaned when she realized that she was still soaked. She needed to dry and warm herself up as soon as she possibly could; she would not succumb to a fever after the ordeal she just survived. That was if she did survive. She still wasn't sure.

A sigh escaped her when she turned towards the body of water, removing the wet locks of hair that stuck to her skin, so that her view would remain unobstructed. As she stared at it, wondering if she could possibly escape that way, she saw small bubbles break the surface, the serenity of the pool disrupted.

Before Merudy even had time to wonder what could be the cause, blue hair followed by a woman's face broke through the surface. Dark blue eyes locked onto her own green ones, and she found herself unable to look away. _Was she the one who saved me?_ Merudy wished to ask, but she'd barely begun to form the words before her throat burned with pain. She coughed again, and felt like she her lung was trying to break free.

Sympathy clouded the strangers eyes, or at least Merudy assumed it was sympathy. It was difficult to tell in the limited light. The newcomer raised a finger to her lips, eye contact intact, and Merudy assumed she was being told to save her breath. She happily obliged, not wanting to suffer that again.

 _If she really is the one who rescued me, then I need to thank her properly._ Merudy hoped the stranger wouldn't be going anytime soon. Even if she wasn't the one who rescued her, she must know the way out of here?

Her mouth opened, but before she could attempt to speak, her eyelids dropped, too heavy to remain open. As she fought to keep them open, she saw the other woman push her body up out of the water slightly. A warm sensation engulfed her body, and before she completely passed out, Merudy could've sworn she saw scales on the strangers lower torso.

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 **A/N: Juvia will become a bigger character starting from the next chapter, as that's when the two will start to get to know one another better. (Hopefully) They'll be developing both together and apart within the coming chapters.**

 **Originally this chapter itself was a lot longer, but I ended up adding to it whilst editing, and so I decided to split it where I did. It seemed like a good point. I just need to transfer the rest from paper to computer, and hopefully there'll be the second chapter up this weekend.**


	2. 02: Fish Are Food, Not Friends

**A/N: Hear we go, second chapter. I should have the third chapter done sometime next week, as the base for it has mostly been written and just needs finishing and editing.**

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The next time Merudy opened her eyes, the pain from her chest had dulled; her throat, however, was still aching. She needed water, _fresh_ water, fast.

A quick glance around her surroundings confirmed that she was once again alone. Or still alone. Had that woman actually been in the water? Or, more likely, had it all been in her head? A dream perhaps.

Her stomach rumbled, the sound echoed in her ears in the silence of the cave. Merudy couldn't tell you how long it'd been since she'd eaten, mostly because she wasn't sure how long it'd been since she'd been thrown overboard.

She wondered if the crew would be searching for her; she was sure that Ultear was, or at least, pushing for them to. She wouldn't rest until she'd found the body either way. Their captain, Jellal, though was a pragmatist. He would allow the search for a short time following the incident, but he was always focused on their 'mission,' and would move on from searching for her to continue it. Ultear would argue, that was a given, but when push came to shove, they'd follow him. They always did.

She rested her hands on her stomach, hoping to try and soothe it from the hunger pangs. She was gently rubbing circles on her stomach when it hit her; her clothes were dry. Too dry. As her hands felt all over her body, she couldn't detect any hint of dampness on herself. In fact, if she hadn't known any better, she'd have said she'd never been wet in the first place.

 _Surely I haven't lay here long enough for them to dry naturally?_ No, she was positive she hadn't. The air was still crisp, and the breeze she felt was bitter. Wait, breeze. Raised once more into a seated position, she scanned the walls, hoping to make out which one had a tunnel. If there was a breeze here, then there must be a way out that didn't require her to take a dive.

Her stomach rumbled once more, and her eyes returned to the pool of water. It wasn't ideal, but perhaps there were some fish swimming near to the surface. She'd take what she could get.

She pushed herself up off of the ground and managed to stand upright, though on shaky legs. She attempted to move forward, but a wave of nausea swept throughout her, and her legs buckled beneath her. Her hand sliced itself open on the rocky ground upon her landing.

"Fuck!" Merudy yelped, as she cradled her injured hand with the other. Despite the pain, she pulled whichever small shards of rock she could. She'd be damned if she survived a near drowning only to succumb to an infection from a minor wound.

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Juvia stayed perfectly still as she huddles against a rock deep within the ocean, eyes stalking her prey as it swam around, ignorant to its impending doom. She preferred to hunt a lot closer to the surface, but as the storm was still raging, a lot of the fish had fled deep into the depths.

It wasn't for herself she was hunting fish for, but rather her guest. If the others found out that she'd rescued a human, Juvia reckoned that they might have a few things to say. But what was she supposed to do?

She knew that the woman was an important person; she recognized her from the images she'd seen from sunken human ships. She couldn't read human writing, but if there were these pictures with her face on them, then that meant that she was important, right? Right.

After she'd initially brought the human to her secret cave, she'd had to leave quickly as she heard Brandish nearby, and the other mermaid was not fond of humans in the slightest. Juvia didn't know what would have happened if Brandish caught her with the human, but it wouldn't have been pleasant, she was sure.

She'd returned once the coast was clear, to find the human awake and moving, though not for long. The poor thing looked awful, and Juvia watched as she collapsed, obviously effected by the cold. Doing what she could to help, she removed the water that soaked the human with her magic. She couldn't start a fire, unfortunately, but she hoped it would be enough to keep her from freezing to death.

Returning her focus to the present, she readied herself for the pounce. Juvia was sure that this species of fish was non-toxic to humans. She also hoped that the human liked it. She'd never seen a living human this close up before, and wanted to learn more about them.

Once the fish had swam close enough, she pounced, searing through the water at top speed; she gripped the fish before it even had a chance to escape, and slammed it against the nearest rock a couple of times, making sure it was dead.

As she swam back towards her cave, her thoughts returned to the human girl again. Hopefully, one fish will be enough.

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Merudy winced as she dipped her hand into the salt water, but it needed to be done. She'd managed to stumble her way up next to the body of water, and now she was doing her best to clean the wound. She rubbed it with her uninjured hand, biting her tongue to prevent herself from crying out. Her throat hadn't fully recovered yet, so she wanted to conserve her voice if possible.

Satisfied she leaned backwards, ignoring the hunger pangs once more. It wouldn't do her any good to dwell on them when she didn't have the strength to rectify it. Her gaze wandered down to her palm once more, and she was pleased that there didn't appear to be any rock left within the cut.

A splash ahead interrupted her thoughts, and she whipped her head forward to come face to face with the stranger from earlier. _So it wasn't a dream_.

The stranger used one hand to support herself on the edge, as she used to other to pass Merudy a dead fish. She took it eagerly, her hunger overpowered all sense at this point.

Her gaze dropped down the woman's body, past her bare chest, and to what Merudy thought she'd dreamed the night before. Scales decorated the woman below the torso, which was consisted of a tail, not legs. She was a mermaid. A real, breathing mermaid.

Merudy knew she should be frightened, she'd heard stories after all, but she wasn't. The aura this mermaid was generating didn't seem malicious.

As she looked at the fish in her hand, she realized that she didn't have a fire going yet. _Am I going to have to eat this raw?_


End file.
